Reading Turkish Islamist Writers

Prologue

This book is the English translation of my latest book, which was published in Greek in 2016 (by Livanis Puplications) and was intended to be used as a textbook for my students at the Department of Turkish Studies and Modern Asian Studies, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. It introduces the writings and ideas of contemporary Turkish Islamist writers, and offers a perspective on the intellectual aspect of the Islamic movement in Turkey, an aspect which is relatively unknown outside Turkey. My principal goal and purpose when conceiving and writing this book was to combine a practical approach with a more theoretical one: in other words, to offer in translation some representative texts of the writers under study, and to discuss, though in a limited manner, the role of Islamist intellectuals in Turkey (and the Muslim world) as an alluring and engaging research topic.

As said above, this book was initially published in Greek—under the title “The Islamist movement in Turkey: Contribution to the study of contemporary Turkish Islamist thought.” For the English-language version I have made only a few changes. Most of these changes concern the bibliography and quotations, as herein I use and refer to the original books published in English and not to their Greek translation or publication—as I did in the Greek version. On the other hand, it was necessary to translate into English (for the English-speaking reader) short or longer passages from the secondary Greek bibliography I used, something that was not needed in the Greek version.

Further, it should be noted that in the time that passed between the completion and publication of the original Greek-language book (in the first half of 2016) and the first months of 2019, when the English manuscript was completed, important political events and developments have occurred in Turkey that are related to at least one of the writers I refer to in the book. I have tried to refer to them and include them, when needed, in a synoptic and succinct way, without altering the structure of the book.

Initially, I translated the majority of the writings presented in the book from Turkish into Greek. For the English version the same writings have been translated into English. As far as Ali Bulaç is concerned, some of his writings were originally published in English and are therefore presented herein in their original form and style.

The difficult task of the English translation could not have been realized without the valuable assistance I received from a number of colleagues and ←9 | 10→professionals in the second half of 2018. I am deeply grateful to them; Sofia Bountouraki, who currently works as a translator at the Greek Translation Office of the EU in Luxemburg, translated major parts of the chapters dedicated to Ali Bulaç and Abdurrahman Dilipak; Maria Markopoulou, who is the Head of the Language Office of the International Award ‘Giuseppe Sciacca’ in Rome and a PhD candidate at the Sorbonne, translated the chapter dedicated to Necip Fazıl Kısakürek and copy-edited chapter 1; Anastassios Tsiropoulos, an English language teacher based in Athens, offered me his assistance in the translation of the Introduction and chapter 1; James Root, a recent MA graduate at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Lund University, Sweden, copy-edited the greater part of the manuscript and without doubt helped me to avoid mistakes and overcome difficulties in writing style and expression.

A Note on Pronunciation of Turkish Names

Throughout the book, I have used the Turkish language when mentioning names of persons, titles of books, and occasionally some terms. To assist the reader not familiar with the Turkish alphabet, here are some indications on pronunciation.

Introduction

The Importance of the Topic

The main purpose of this study is to contribute to the familiarization of the reader with the production of Islamist writers in contemporary Turkey, by focusing on the writings and ideas of three central figures in the Turkish Islamist movement: Necip Fazıl Kısakürek, Ali Bulaç, and Abdurrahman Dilipak.

All three belong to a circle of Islamist writers and intellectuals, a circle which plays a major protagonist role within the whole field of intellectual and literary production of contemporary Turkish intellectuals, as will hopefully become clear in the following chapters. Kısakürek was a prominent intellectual figure of the 20th century who engaged with various literary forms, history, philosophy, essay writing, as well as the publication of journals dedicated to the above-mentioned genres. The volume of his work, including that of religious or Islamist trends, meanings, and ideas, is immense. He can be classified as the pioneering Islamist and the intellectual father to the following generation of Islamist thought and activity in Turkey. It can also be claimed that Kısakürek, through his works, intertwines the late Ottoman Empire with the Turkey of the second half of the 20th century by bridging, spiritually and ideologically, the gap between the Ottoman intellectuals of the 19th century and contemporary Islamist intellectuals. On the other hand, both Bulaç and Dilipak are considered to be two of the most eminent and popular Islamist writers and intellectuals in present-day Turkey.